The Chasm of Alienation - Part Three

The chasm of alienation -- part three -- the solution -- part two

How do you know you are doing the right thing?

How do you know, that you are doing the right thing in your life, and with your life?
How do you know, that you are doing the right thing in any given situation in your life?
And how do you know, that doing the right thing actually matters anyway?

So How do you know you are doing the right thing, how do you know what the right thing is, and why does it really matter anyway?

Even the atheist, the God denier, will acknowledge that it is better to do good than to do bad, (deep down you don't have to convince people of that truth), but if your world view is one where there is no God, you have to say that ultimately it makes no sense to say, that good is better than bad.

Without God, there really is no firm centre and foundation, to navigate life and its often difficult paths, and in fact there is no real need to choose good over bad. And certainly this is true in a moral sense, that we live in a culture where morality or lifestyle is perceived as being a matter of one's own choice.

The truth is, our society doesn't live consistently with that, because at some point it feels the need to legislate the bounds of what appropriate behaviour looks like. So many people today, live by the rules that if it's legal its moral, and even if it is illegal (as long as you don't get caught), that's ok as well.

A worldview without God, ultimately an becomes at its logical conclusion, an immoral view of life, which as a consequence is usually lived out by people somewhere along the slippery slope that is relativism.

There is no firm basis, in truth, for deciding good from bad, all we have to direct us, is what are current social norms, to which we are compelled to conform, irrespective of the fact that there is no firm basis for seeing them as virtue or vice.

In recent weeks, you couldn't help but notice, the latest scandal to envelop the NRL. So let me ask, what do you think really was the problem?

For some people, it wasn't so much the act itself, as it was the fact that it became publicly known, and as a result it became a public relations nightmare. For other people it wasn't the nature of the act, a number of men using one woman, but it was in fact only a problem because of the power imbalance in the situation, that meant it probably wasn't consensual.

For other people, it was the fact that the act itself, with a number of men and one woman, which they believe to be if not wrong, at least distasteful.

But at the heart of the issue And interestingly, very few people commented on the fact, that it centred on a married man having sex with an unmarried woman. Very few people seem to think that the cheating on his wife, the adultery, was central to the issue at all.

So how do Society decide what is good and what is bad, without God?

In this day and age, the main premise that has formed something of a mantra for our "tolerant" and "relative is" society, is the shibboleth of "do no harm". Which is another way of saying, All is fair in love and war as long as no one loses an eye. As long as no one gets hurt, you can do what you like.

Which sounds nice, at one level, but the truth is our society doesn't even live consistently with that. The expression "do no harm", has become the excuse for all sorts of immoral behaviour, but more than that, immoral mankind doesn't even live consistently with his new maxim of morality, "do no harm".

You only need to see the out working of the events, from that night in Christchurch in 2002, to see the reality, that mankind really lives inconsistently with himself, and in the process does much harm, even if they are unable (or just unprepared) to perceive the harm that will come at the time of their actions.

And that is not even to begin to start with some of the bigger issues in our society today. Again only this week, United States President, was challenged on the issue of abortion. How can society justify the extermination of the most vulnerable people in our society, and still claim "do no harm". Abortion in the vast majority of cases, is not even close to, "to do least harm" let alone “do no harm”. Again this current society claims a Maxum, a shibboleth, of "a woman's right to choose". But then how does that relate, to "doing no harm"?
A woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to not have sex. A woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to be part of married relationship where sexual relations are a good and godly expression of the relationship, within which children are a blessing from God.

A woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to use contraceptives wisely (although there will be much discussion in Christian circles as to how to use them wisely, and why some methods are not wise at a minimum, while others that work post-fertilisation are in fact immoral).

But in many ways, a woman, just like a man, has the ability and capacity to take control and responsibility for their own lives and actions.
But, a woman, just like a man, does not have the ability to put to death another human life. A woman, just like a man, does not have “the right to chose” death for another innocent human, particularly just because it has become an inconvenient consequence of their failure (a long with the male partner) to use their other abilities and responsibilities properly in regards to their sexual expressions.
You cannot use the language of rights if you will not take on the associated responsibilities. No one has the right to terminate an innocent human being. The issue of abortion in the society, is a classic outworking of man's inconsistent self-regulation and self-determination, once they have denied the reality of God our creator and his purpose for our lives.

There are such things as good and bad in our world. And no amount of saying you feel good about an act, changes it from being bad too good. Mankind is not the ultimate determiner of what is good and bad in this world, only the creator is. Mankind in his arrogance goes on with his ways, ignoring his creator, and bearing in his own existence the consequences of his decision. The consequences being the experience of alienation.

Many people in society may have given up on the "why" question about life. But no one can afford to give up on the question, "how shall we live?". The Christian Gospel offers a real, meaningful, fruitful, and practical solution to both these questions. “why do we have life, and how shall we now live”?

God created mankind to live in relationship with him. And as a result, Mankind is hardwired to worship. To honour and serve God. The vast majority of the world, today at this time, acknowledges the reality that they were created to worship. But as we saw in part one of our talks this weekend, mankind has distorted that reality, and has exchanged the truth about the living God, declared in creation, for a lie. All man kind worships and serves some god. And in the vast majority of cases one whom is no God at all. In fact in Western society today, the god most people serve, is themselves.

And as a result of our rejection of God, we bear the consequences of our choices, through the alienation the experience in this world,. Mankind in their choice to sever relationship with the living God, is cut asunder from the touchstone of reality, the heart of all truth and meaning in life and creation, the living God. And as a result, we have sold ourselves into slavery, to our new Lord.

Mankind's actions of denying the true God, has caused them to drift across a wasteland in a life of inconsistency and Immorality (at is logical conclusion), with no real ultimate purpose and meaning.

Mankind is no good at self-regulation, because mankind was not made to self regulate. We were designed to worship, to serve an honour, the true and living God. The disconnection, or alienation experienced in this life, is a result of our rejection of God. it is the result of our Sin.

The only hope for mankind, is the central hope for mankind, in fact it is the centre of all life, creation history, purpose, and meaning, it is the gospel message about the lord of creation and his cross. The cross of Christ, (which is a shorthand way of saying Christ's death and resurrection), is the central event, of life, history, space and time, because it is the centre of Gods purposes for all creation.
In this amazing event, in Palestine 2000 years ago, God entered into his world, and upon that cross, put things right between mankind and himself. for those who would believe Christ and his cross, he brokered a true and lasting, even eternal, peace between mankind and God.

Because of Christ's life and death, we are now able to have life and meaning and purpose in our very selves, because we are able to worship God, the true God, the living God, as we were designed to do in the first place. We have been rescued, and redeemed from the wasteland, that is this sinful and destructive self determination, and we have been freed in Christ to worship God.

We are free to worship God, to honour God as God, to give him due praise, and to serve him as our God, as the lord of all our lives, who has called us out of the darkness, to be his people, for a purpose.
God saved us in Christ to worship him, now there are two main aspects of worship we're going to look at now. We have been saved, to firstly, be separate from the world and to live as Christ's people -- to not live like the world any longer, but we are to do it with the goal of Secondly, serving. We are saved, to be separate, to serve.

We are called to serve as Christ's people. We are called by Christ to serve. We are to serve his very own people, in the communal life of his body the church. But we are also to serve Christ by being his ambassadors of reconciliation into this world. We have been saved, to be separate, to serve.

Christ's Gospel is the solution to the problem of alienation in this world, it is the means and way of putting things right in our lives, by putting things right with God. But not only is Christ's Gospel the foundation of solution to the problem of alienation, we are part of the solution as well. Christ has chosen his people, to be for good in this world.

His people are to actively seek to live God's way in God's world, in order that God’s goodness, and purposes, may be seen by, and fulfilled in, his world and to his glory.

We are a saved people, who are to live separately from the way the world does, in order to serve the body of Christ, and indeed to serve the world itself, by showing the wisdom of Christ and his gospel in our lives. The solution to the problem of alienation is the Christian Gospel, but also the Christian Gospel lived out in authentic Christian lives. The authentic Christian life is the life of worship. That is what God has called us to, that is what God has saved us for.

The Christian cannot view the world like the unbeliever, because we now know the "why" of life. The Christian also knows the “how” of life, the “how shall we know live”, the good they should do in this life, but it is only by the power of the spirit they can see that truth, and they can be empowered for that truth in their lives.
We are called to live the authentic Christian life, the "Obedience of faith" that Paul desired of his readers back in chapter one of Romans, an authentic Christian life, that is the life of worship.

Rom 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Now as we look at this passage, we need to get something sorted out from the beginning. Worship in the Bible is not a term used exclusively about church gathering, or even less so is it used about the singing in church. But that is how the term is used in our contemporary Christian context. Worship is often used about singing, as if there is something particularly pleasing about that the God, as opposed to what we do in the rest of our lives. In fact, in using the worship in regard to singing only, it profoundly misunderstands the nature of Christian worship.

Christian worship is about the whole of life, v1 of Romans chapter 12 tells us that we are to offer our whole bodies, in the worship of God. Now, There are in fact two words that are translated as worship in the English Bible, the first of these, means to honour, to give glory to God as God -- literally it means to bow at the waist. The second word that is translated as worship in the Bible, is a word that means to serve. So the idea of worship is dual, it is about honouring God as God, and doing that through serving him and his purposes. Nothing gives God greater honour than his people living lives as he has called them to. That is the life of worship.

The life of worship is not just praises upon our lips, but the actions of our lives as an out working of a heart that longs after God and please him alone. To change dirty nappy, (which can be a pretty disgusting thing by the way), is an expression of faithful worship of the true God when it is done acknowledging that this is the work that God has put before us to do.

That is offering our bodies to serve God which is true worship, much like Jesus Christ the true worshipper who came not to be served but to serve.

There is no point honouring God with your lips on Sunday, if you will not honour him by serving him with your body the rest of the week, that is not worship. And yet I suspect that is how too many Christian people live in our context. Our true worship, our spiritual worship if you like, is to offer all of our lives, all our mind, heart, soul and strength -- all our dreams, all our working life, all our relationships, all our hopes, our money and our time, all of them, to honour and serve the true and living God.

Singing can be worship, but worship is much more than singing. the Sunday meeting can be worship, but worship is much more than the Sunday meeting. True worship is serving and honouring God with all our lives and person. Worship is to lead a God honouring and God pleasing life in every aspect and sphere of our existence, in every corner of this life he has given to us.

True worship it is about being truly human, about living out our God-given lives in relationship with that God. It is about living lives that have meaning, hope and purpose, in spite of the alienation we experience all around us.

Now you're big question should be, "how can I do that?".

Well Firstly, worship is about gratitude. No Christian is more pleasing to God because of their worship, which is to say that worship is not meritorious in our standing before God. God does not give us smilie stamps for good behaviour. Our life of worship, is the "Obedience of faith" in action. Worship is our right response of obedience because of God's mercy towards us, and that is what the apostle Paul says in verse one, "therefore, I appeal to you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship".

Worship is not meritorious for us with God, but it is a right response of obedience because of the profound mercy God has had towards us. God loved us enough to send his precious one and only son to die for us, how can we now not love God in response by honouring him as God with all our lives. God has given us in Jesus Christ, everything we need for life and salvation, he has saved us, and so now we serve him. That is what it means to truly call Christ our Lord and saviour.

The life of worship is marked, founded and fuelled by gratitude to God for his great love and mercy towards us in his son, which is only possible through the holy spirit that God has given us.

Secondly, worship is about two sides of the one coin, of on the one hand, resisting the world, and on the other hand being transformed in our minds.

So the first side of the coin is resisting the world.
Paul talks about the nature of the Christian resistance of the world quite a lot in the book of Romans in particular from chapters 5-8 we get a good picture of the nature of the Christian life now, in this alienating world, as we live in Christ. In particular, Christians are to show the wisdom of God by living God's way in God's world, which is to say they are to resist the temptation to live just as the world does. Just as those who deny God and his rule live. The people who bear in themselves the foolishness of the decision, and one day will bear the judgement of God for all eternity if they do not come to their senses and take refuge in the great Redeemer Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us that we are able to resist sin and temptation, because we are no longer slaves to sin as we were, but we have been redeemed by Christ and belong to him. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to Christ.

Romans 6:11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Now If you stop to think about it, Do you still live with the same goals and ambitions and purpose as your God denying friends?
Is there a perceivable difference in how you live your life, spend your time, how you work than the rest of our God denying society?

If you still live like your God denying friends, in those external things, if you drink like your God denying friends, if your sexual life is like your God denying friends, if you lust after the same material things as your God denying friends, you have to ask yourself the question:
Is Christ really my lord?
OR Do I just serve him with my lips, and on and other with my heart?

Christian people who have received the Gospel of Christ will be changed by his spirit. We will no longer desire the things we once did, we will no longer do the things we once did, but instead we will desire to put those things to death. Christian people will not be perfect in their worship of God this side of Christ's return, but we should expect substantial change in our lives, that is evident to all, including ourselves in regard to the lifestyle we lead & the desires of our heart.

Romans 12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.

Because of Christ's victory at the Cross, and his gift of the holy spirit to us, we now no longer live as slaves to sin, we now no longer conform to the pattern of this world, but by the power of the spirit we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ. In our status we have been changed from God's enemies to his children, and now by the spirit we have been substantially changed, and we are being conformed into the likeness of his perfect son Jesus. God's spirit changes us to enable us to live a life of worship in Christ, the authentic Christian life, "the Obedience of faith".

So we are to resist the world, its ways, its goals and its wisdom, and instead we are to be renewed in our minds by the power of the spirit.

In our Christian context, people often oppose the spirit to the flesh, which in these verses of ROmans 12 would oppose the spirit to the mind. And there is truth in that, in this context we are not talking about worship, being some sort of activity of self-help, the kind of process or program that you would see promoted on Oprah or Dr Phil. So at that level people are right to resist the notion that the God pleasing life is just an act of will.

But unfortunately, in the process many Christian people tend to throw the baby out with the bath water. Paul is saying here that the life of worship is not about bypassing the minds through some short-circuited power of the holy spirit, but it is instead, foundationaly the work of spirit to renew God's creation the mind. The mind for which Christ died to redeem.

The spirit itself works upon our very own minds, to rewire them, to recreate them, so that they would not be God hating in their natural inclinations, but God loving and honouring in their inclinations as God intended in the beginning.

The word Paul uses here to describe the transforming of our minds, is actually the word from which we get the English equivalent of metamorphosis. A profound change and rebirth of the mind to be able to think Gods thoughts after him, about his world and how to live in it.

In fact this passage is so much about the mind, where the NIV says, "spiritual worship", a more direct translation of this term would-be "logical worship" or even "true worship". Paul here is encouraging us to conform our minds to God's mind about his world, to live out the Obedience that comes through faith.

The renewing of the minds is a work of the spirit that comes first and foremost through the word of God. God's speech to us empowered by his spirit is what renews our mind, it is how the gospel word comes to us, this gospel word that recreates, this gospel word that saves, this gospel word that brings the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives and changes us from the inside out, so that we may reflect his glory in his world and live God honouring lives.
Is your very existence defined by Christ and his gospel?

Is your life reflective of that truth?

How do you need to result right now to change, in order to reflect rightly the truth of who Christ is and what he has done for you?

How are you going to change the priorities in your life so that you would no longer be conformed to the world, but renewed in your mind to honour Christ and to live out God honouring lives in his world?

The life of worship is the antidote to the alienation experienced in the world. The life of worship is the authentic Christian life, it is the Obedience of faith, which means it is a life of service.

Now just quickly we need to mention that we have looked at Salvation this weekend from a very individual perspective, but the truth is why we are saved as individuals, we are saved individuals brought into a community, we are brought into the body of Christ.

The authentic Christian life, the life of worship is not individualistic, we are called to serve Christ by serving his people, and in fact serving his whole world. Christian people express their Christian faith essentially and truly by serving Christ's Church and by serving Christ's world.

So just quickly I'll read for us
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Love
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The problem of alienation that every single person in this world experiences, is solved, by dealing with the chasm of alienation that exists between mankind and God. The only means of dealing with this alienation, is the Gospel of Christ.

Only Christ and his substitutionary death on a cross, and his declaration of victory overall by being raised from the dead, is a real solution and foundation in this life. All other options are truly sinking sand.

Our lives have become inextricably tied up with Christ's by Faith and his gracious gift to us. Our lives are now hidden in Christ's and as a result we are his Gospel light into this dark world. God is using you and me to make his appeal to the world to be reconciled to him. And God has called us into his body the community of the church to serve them to that end, that the whole world may hear of the glory of the Christ and receive life in his name. We have been saved by Christ, that we may be separate from the world in order to serve.

The Gospel is the real and true solution to the alienation of this life, but the authentic Christian life, the life of worship, the Obedience of faith, is the concrete expression and witness of the gospel truth in the Gospel power in God's world.
The question is for you, is Christ's gospel your gospel, or are you looking for some other means to find meaning and hope and purpose and salvation in this life?

I appeal to your brothers and sisters, have no other saviour Jesus, have no other GOSPEL than Christ's, live no other life than one wholly sacrificed to God. Resist the world in the power of the spirit its slippery slope of being conformed into its likeness, but instead renew your minds in the spirit power that you may truly be salt and light in the world.

That you may truly live the authentic Christian life, that you may truly live a life of worship honouring in serving the living God, in order that Jesus himself may make his appeal to his world through you. That people would see the truth of and the power of the gospel lived out in authentic Christian lives.

Rom 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The Chasm of Alienation - Part Two

The chasm of alienation -- part two -- the solution - part one

Why is there something, rather than nothing?

Why is there a world, why are there people, why do we exist, when it seems far more likely that non-existence is the more statistically sensible outcome. If you have an airtight, vacuum sealed, sterile, box of nothing, even if you leave it alone for millions of years, I guarantee you that nothing will come from that nothing. So why is it we find that there is something, rather than nothing?

Have you ever tried asking that question to someone, why is there something rather than nothing? Seems to me, the response you will get from most people, is something along the lines of, it's about the big bang, it's about evolution, it is -- well it's the vibe.

Most people will make some vague appeal to science, that somehow it provides the answers to the question “why”. Maybe they will bandy around some names like Darwin or even more likely today Dawkins to substantiate their view.

And generally I think, Christians aren't much better at times in interacting with this issue. We often cower in fear at the sight of someone with a PhD from Oxford, for the fear of looking silly.

But the reality is, that to trying to answer the question “why” with scientific investigation, (while it is extremely useful in itself), is a profound category miss classification. Science does not attempt to answer the question “why”, that is not the goal of science. The goal of scientific investigation is to answer the question “how”. It is to seek an answer for “how” is there something, “how” did our world come to look like it does. But that is not answering the question “why”.

Scientific investigation may be entirely true in its explanation of the existence of the world coming into being through an event called the big bang. Smarter minds than mine still argue over all that, but it doesn't seem an unreasonable idea. That is science doing, what science is supposed to do, explaining “how”. But to then jump in logic from the event of the big bang, to assign a motive (if you like) to the event, is well an act of faith in a sense.

To be able to describe the event of the beginning is sciences job, but then to claim this as a grounds for the motive, (or the “why” of the event), is outside the scope, and the field of expertise, outside the area of diagnostics for the scientific method. Science may give helpful data to instruct our understanding of “how” the world is, and it may even at times infer or point to a meaning, but it does not in itself try to explain “why” the world is.

Scientifically I can tell you how someone has a baby without meeting the parents, but scientifically I cannot really tell you why they had a baby.

That area but knowledge is just not open to investigation by scientific method without meeting them and speaking to them. And so it is with the creation itself, science only has access to the “how”, it does not have access to the “why”. But most Athiests today confidently extrapolate from the perceived “how” to assign the “why”.

But more than answering the question “why”, in terms of “why” is there a world, we need to actually go further than that question to be able to explain reality that we live in. We don't just need to be able to answer the question “why is there a world”, but we also need to be able to answer the question “why is the world as it is”?

Why is the world like this?

If the big bang did explain the “why”, then how do you explain that the world is as it is, and not like some other world. To Ask this in practical terms, why is the world so stuffed? Why are there so many broken bits, why do things go wrong, why isn't this world perfect? why doesn't it fit together better?

Why does my body let me down, my brain forgets things, my knees fall apart, and some days my emotions get the better of me. Why am I like this, why aren't I better than I am?

How does this scientifically confident, God denier, give an account of why the world is like it is? Other than a shrug of the shoulders, and a bumper sticker answer of "stuff happens". A pragmatic, “it is what it is”. Which is all fine and good, until you're the one that "stuff happens" to.

Why is there deep within everyone's soul a longing for a better world?
Why aren't we content with the world we have?
Why do we all know things are wrong with this life, with creation, with our relationships, and with ourselves. How is it that we all know the personal experience of the weight of alienation, if this is exactly how the world is meant to be?

The scientifically confident, God denier, may be able to explain the “how” of life and even the “how” of death, but they cannot really give an account, a meaningful and purposeful account of the “why of life and death”. The idea of most of society that, "It just is", quite frankly is not enough. If you have a life, then we have an onus upon us, to work out why we were given in the first place.

The God denier looks at the world and sees how things are, and makes decisions of how to make things better. But the Christian understands not only how things are, but “why” things are, because God himself, the true and living God has made himself known and told us the truth about ourselves.

The Christian understands reality in a way that God denier cannot, because we understand the big and integrative “why” of life and not just some fragmented and compartmentalized understanding of the “how”.

Just by mankind applying our minds to the reality we see around us, we will never penetrate the depths of the problem we have. In fact to only observe the problems we face each day of the brokenness of this world is to only focus on the symptoms and not the heart of the problem. The problem is far worse than we thought. The problem is not so much these things we experience, but the problem we have is with God. A problem to which all our experiences point.

The Bible tells us that at the heart of reality is the triune Creator God, who made creation good, but has laid a curse upon the creation, because mankind chose to reject him, to reject God as God, to usurp his authority and as a result bore the just judgement of the holy God.
And now we experience this judgement of God in every aspect of our lives, the created order, our relationships, even in our own bodies and minds.

All mankind has put themselves out of right relationship with God, which we learnt in the last talk, "no one is righteous not even one".
But Because the Christian understand deeply the reality of why the world is like it is, we are the ones who know what the real problem is our real problem is our relationship with God, and so we're the ones who are going to see what the right solution is as well.

The reality of life without God in this existence, is bleak, in fact it is a profound darkness, but into this darkness has shone a great light, the light of God in his son Jesus Christ, and the good news, the Gospel he brings to all people is of salvation from judgement, and reconciliation with God our creator whom we have alienate, Salvation and reconciliation that has come to the world through Jesus death on a cross & his resurrection from the dead, a reconciliation and salvation which comes to us through belief in the son and what he has done, through belief in his word of good news, through belief in his gospel.
And this is the challenge, do you think the Christian Gospel, the message of the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus is a real solution to the world's problems? Is it a real solution for our world, is it the foundational solution for our world?

Which to put it in a more personal way, is a real solution for your problems? Or is it just some useful fiction?

God puts forth in the Bible, that the real solution to the problems of the alienation experienced in this world, is a solution to the problem of our alienation from him. The real solution for the world, and its problems of alienation, is a reconciliation with God our creator, which only comes through belief in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord who came to die and deal with our sin, and was raised to life and declared Lord of all. This Lord is Lord of creation who will return to make all things new.

In this section of our talks we are going to look at three important ways that the Gospel of Christ, and in particular the cross of Christ provides real solutions for our world.

The question for us will be if the gospel is a real solution to the world's problems, how must it shape the way we live now?

Rom 3:22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

1. The judicial and relational Power of the cross

In this section of Romans chapter 3, Paul reiterates for us the problem, the main problem, the big problem, Man’s problem, in fact all mankind’s problem, is that, "there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Just as we saw it in more detail and talk one, every person fails to honour God as God as they should. We do not love God with all our heart and with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. Instead, infact, We actively turn from God’s rule, and fail to worship him, (to honour and serve him) as we should.

And then apostle Paul goes on to paint in the most marvellous imagery, the reality that God our creator, has not consigned us to the scrapheap, but has been patient with us, in order that he may show mercy upon us, and it was an extremely costly mercy for him. God shows us the nature of himself, he exhibits true grace, just as we are reminded in chapter 5 of Romans, that "God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were sinners, Christ died for us".

God is gracious towards us, but it is a costly grace. We are a people who have fallen out the right standing before God, we have sin in our lives, which means that we have fallen short of God’s standard, we are not righteous (in right standing) we are in fact Unrighteous, we have criminal convictions against us because we have done wrong against God. All wrong against God, is to usurp God's authority as God and the penalty is death, the Bible tells us "no other gods before me", "I am God and there is no other".

But in chapter 3 of Romans Paul tells us that God offers to us Righteousness as a gift, Righteousness by Grace, Righteousness by grace that comes through faith. God in Christ paid the penalty that you and I deserved. God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement through his blood we learn in verse 25. This is picking up the old Testament imagery of the sacrifice made the temple. Christ poured out his own perfect life upon the cross to pay the penalty of our Sin towards God. Christ died the death that we should have died, to pay the penalty that we couldn't pay.

The innocent son of God died in our place, so that the sinful son of men could be washed from the stains of their sin by his blood and be redeemed and reconciled with God who is their creator and now their father.

God is a holy God, the judge of all creation, & he did not deal with mankind's sin, with a wink and a nod, or say “she’ll be right attitude”. God has dealt justly, but truly and deeply with Mankind’s sin in the death of his son. In this God is both ‘just and the justifier” we read in V26.The Gospel of Christ, which is to say the good news of Christ, comes to us with real power, in chapter one of Romans Paul says "I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes,"

Christ's act upon the cross, is a powerful act that comes to us, that is applied to our real lives and persons, in and through his powerful word of the gospel.

Belief in Christ's death is not some fairy godmother belief, it is not a legal fiction, but it is the power of God found in his son, in the gospel word of his son, applied to our lives through the holy spirit to pay the penalty of sin, and to cleanse us from the guilt of our sin.

The Gospel is the power of God that takes us from the realm of this world, the realm of darkness, the realm of Satan, and redeems us and reconcile us so we are now Gods children by faith in Christ.

Christ and his cross are the power of God that truly and deeply deals with the source of the problem that we experience in the alienation in this life, Christ and his cross deal with our sin, and give us Righteousness. You cannot deal with the alienation experience in this life, unless you go to the heart of the problem first.

The gospel is the real solution to the world problems.

2. The experiential power of the cross

The Cross itself has rescued us from the Dominion of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of God's glorious light. Christ's death and resurrection has declared him lord of all, he has defeated his enemies, which is to say he is defeated out enemies, at the cross.

The cross is not just a cognitive belief that informs our minds, but it is the power of God applied by the spirit that changes our very being. We know in ourselves the power of the cross, because we know within ourselves, deep in our beings, we have been forgiven, we have received the gift of forgiveness. And we are not slaves to this world and sin like we once were. The cross and resurrection of Christ is powerful to change us. As we said before we have changed in status because of our acceptance of the gospel, we were God's enemies, and now we are his children. But not only has it changed our status, it has changed our person. It truly deals with sin within a person and we are now inclined in ourselves to honour God as God, and to live his way.

Not to be hostile to God, like we once were, but receptive of the powerful Grace he offers to us, not just in salvation but also in renewal, to say no to sin and live a God honouring life. A life that bears the marks of "the Obedience of faith", which is to say the life of worship, or the authentic Christian life.

Now we will have a little bit more to say about this topic tomorrow, as we consider the Christian life in light of the Christian Gospel.

3. The power of the cross to deal with the pain of alienation

An important aspect of the nature of Christ's life, death and resurrection, is the way and that it speaks into our world, of our God and his nature. Our God is not a distant God, a God who set the world in motion and cares nothing for it. Our God is not distant to our suffering, he is not distant to the problem of alienation, which is to say he is not distant to the problem of evil in our world.
In fact our God, rather than just dishing out justice as it deserved, (and he would have been entitled to do), he rather showed his grace, his love his care, and his empathy for mankind. God himself in the person of his son Jesus Christ entered into this world.

Jesus the incarnate son of God, entered into this world, and experienced the alienation common to all Mankind for himself. Jesus suffered in himself the reality of human existence in this world, and more than that he suffered it unjustly. All of the humanity has sinned, and at some level endure is the consequences of their actions. But Jesus actions were always right, and yet he died the most profound and unjust death that mankind has ever know.

People will rightly asked the question, "where is God in the midst of the suffering?", and we as Christians can rightly, and truthfully, and humbly answer, by pointing to the cross.

Where was God in the midst of the suffering, God was in the midst of it, seeking to solve solve the problem, by the most expensive and precious means he had available to him, the death of his own son. The Christian God is not distant in the midst of this alienation, but at a deep and personal level he understands the reality of mankind’s condition, and has acted powerfully in the death and resurrection of his son (that is brought to us in the Gospel message) to fix the problem.

The Gospel message is the power of God, because of Christ's death and resurrection, to deal with the profound alienation in his world, because it deals foundation by dealing with the heart of the problem of alienation, which is our alienation from God our Creator. The cross really does fix the problem of sin in our relationship with God. It deals with the problem of our unrighteousness before God, it changes our status from enemies to children. It deals with our experience of sin, that we can know within ourselves the power of forgiveness from God, but also the power of God to change us in the depths of our being to be inclined for God and against sin. And finally we know the power of the Gospel of Christ, to appeal to our world, that God truly knows on the inside what it is to face the hardship in this world, and that he has truly dealt with the problem.

That is the truth of the Gospel of Christ, it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe, it offers the gift Righteousness from God bought by Christ's blood to pay for our sin.

So this is the part where the rubber hits the road, to let me ask you a few questions.

Most of you here today are relatively young, well relative to me anyway! And there are two main issues I think for being young Christians.

Firstly, life for you at the moment is full of positive an endless options. What I am trying to say is life is on the up. And it's quite possible you view Christianity at the moment as just one option for life, amongst a number of options. Other options like work or career, where to live, relationships all these sorts of things figure fairly prominently as well.

One of the joys of being young, is that you are usually still getting better at most things, but the news is, time is rapidly approaching, when you to will be like the rest of humanity and discover that you have limits. As you get older, you just stop getting better at lots of things, and in fact usually you just run out of time for things altogether.

Young people get old, just like I did. In fact some of them don’t, and instead they die young, like some of my friends did. Despite what feels like at the moment, life is not about endless options, so learn from the reality of other people lives and make choices about your options now, to prepare for the life ahead, but more importantly for the life to come.

No amount of money, or career, or status, or travel, or family, can stand up to the reality, that without Christ we are without hope in this world, and facing God’s judgement in the next. Christ is the saviour of all who believe, but he is an exclusive saviour. You cannot have Christ amongst the pantheon of your own gods, like money and friends and status and respectability. Christ is an exclusive saviour he demands from you an exclusive faith.

Does Jesus have your exclusive allegiance, or do you try and play with other gods behind his back. I might not notice, your friends might not notice, but he does. Are you exclusively committed to Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his gospel for the good of his world, or deep down are you trying to hedge your bets and just live like everyone else? Is Jesus and his cross, nothing more to you than a get out of jail free card?

Secondly, in being young, many of you have grown up in Christian homes, so going to church, and having Christian friends has almost been a default position.

I can't tell you how or when, but I can tell you for sure, that the time is coming when God will shake the tree to see what falls out. God will send testing on us all to prove our faith true or false. Now, Especially because you are young, you should be preparing for that day now. Resolve in your hearts, minds and spirits to set apart Christ as Lord, to believe in, and to serve the Lord Jesus Christ for yourselves. Not because it's what your parents did. Not because it's what people expect of you. But because it is the truth, and because it is the truth you need, because without him the only thing you stand before God with is your own sin.

Being young, means you have choices to make, and this is the most important choice you will ever make. More important and who you will marry, more important and what you will do for a career, more important than where you will live, and more important that how long you will live.

This is the most important choice you will ever make, so let me ask you, hand on heart, in the sight of the living God, have you wholeheartedly resolved that Christ alone will be your Lord and Saviour, that you will honour serve and love him, all the days of your life, with all that you have, because he died for you, to take away your sin and to reconcile you to God.

You can do nothing more important is your life, than believing in and following Jesus. Will you follow Jesus? Will you share his Gospel message that truly is the power of God to deal with the alienation we experience in this world, the symptoms of our alienation with God.

Will you follow Jesus, and tell of his powerful gospel to a lost world?

Rom 3:22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The Chasm of Alienation - Part One

Part one -- the chasm of alienation -- the problem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw2XX820jYo

The overwhelming sense of that song, both lyrically, and melodically, is of a man who knows that the world is not as it should be. And a man who longs for God to change it. (Whether it is the most theologically correct song going around, is definitely up for grabs), but at its heart it conveys in wonderfully poetic imagery the brokenness everyone knows and experiences in this world, and personally in their own lives.

Bono is sitting in the middle of the dinner, visually conveying the metaphor, that modern man is surrounded by people, particularly in the big city experience, and yet is profoundly alone at the very same time. In the midst of bright lights and activity that is the modern life, he asks the question, "where is the faith, where is the hope, and where is the love?".

Which is to ask in Christian language, that great philosophical question, “where is the meaning in life?”.
Like the poets and philosophers of old, he stops to reflect, and to look past the shiny and noisy wrapping that life comes in, to stare deep into its heart, and asked the question, "is there anything there?".
Or more importantly asked the question, "is there anything there for me?".

I'm not sure that our society is more vacuous now, than any other society in the past, but I really do believe that our society is the most distracted society in the history of man. People don't sit quietly any more, people don't think much anymore, they don't leave the space to do it. They fill their lives with noise and lights, with the goal of their own pleasure, which is to say an intention to distract from things that are unpleasant. To distract themselves from the hard realities of life.

The picture of the modern worker in transit to the city, from our very neighbourhood, is a person with their laptop playing their MP3, while they update their face booked status, and talk to their boss on their mobile through the other ear. Plenty of noise, plenty of lights, the essence of distraction, but the absence of meaning.

The poets and philosophers, of every age, ask those questions about the meaning of life, (which in a distracted society like ours, means they need to be musicians or contestants on a reality program to get a hearing).

But the reality is, all of us who have been given life, are duty bound by the gift of life, to find an answer for that question ourselves. Even if we don't want to contemplate it, even if we try and hide from it, even if we excel at distracting ourselves from its penetrating gaze. This question will come to us, each and every one of us who has been given life. “what is life about?”, and “why is the world, like it is?”.

You see it is a plain statement to every single living person, that this life is not what it should be. The question is, what are you going to do about it?

It is a completely uncontroversial statement, to say that the world is not as it should be. Everyone knows that, you don't actually need to convince anyone of that. Everyone knows there is a problem with this world, and with living a life in this world, and we feel this brokenness, this problem bear upon our lives.

Firstly it is obvious that the creation is broken, it is not as it should be. From the tsunami in Asia, to the swine flu in Mexico, from the poverty and war in Africa, to the inherent distrust and war in the Middle East, from the economic collapse that has forced so many people into financial hardship, and even out of their homes, to the environment itself (in the modern day blue-chip feelgood do something stock that is global warming). You do not need to convince people that this world is not as it should be.

And we haven't even begun to discuss the atrocities that mankind has done to themselves and their world throughout history.

Secondly it is obvious that relationships are broken, they are not as they should be. The recent census data has shown a significant increase in the number of single person dwellings. Of people living on their own in the city. Relationships in our proud and materialistic society are falling apart everywhere, and people are left with no choice but to live alone.
Loneliness is a profound burden upon us all at some point, an experience the brokenness of this world.

Relationships are broken. Whether it is the experience of loneliness, through divorce (which is significantly still on the increase still), to suicide (another profound scar upon the conscience and psyche of modern Australia). Even the breaking of relationships, and the isolation that comes, through redundancy and unemployment. A lack of connection with the rest of society, a lack of real and meaningful relationships, a lack of purpose through a lack of being useful that comes with unemployment.
Relationships are broken.

Thirdly, it is obvious that we are broken. People are broken, we are more often than not the source of the problem, not the solution. But more than that, we also have the brokenness of this creation act upon us, and we do not respond well, we fail. We suffer and bear in our very selves, the brokenness of this life, in personal disappointments -- of failing to achieve what we want to.
Whether it is the brokenness of physical illness, whether viral or bacterial, or mental, we all experience the brokenness of this world at the personal level sooner or later.

How else to explain a show like the biggest loser?
We don't watch it, because we want to see fat people get skinny, as though it is just some vain satisfaction to watch because fat people are ugly and skinny people are good-looking, although that's probably part of the appeal in our shallow society. The real appeal, in something that appears so simple at the surface level, is that in these people journey, we vicariously experience and witness a profound triumph of humanity against the brokenness of this world. Why else do we get to this sense of joy, over someone losing 75 kg?

It is because they have defeated the brokenness of this life, and they have got their life back from the edge of extinction in many cases.
A show like the biggest loser, it appeals to the secular gospel of our society, that if you work hard you can overcome anything. The power of positive thinking. That's the GOSPEL most people live with, but it is a gospel with at best limited power. In the end it is a gospel that cannot work. No amount of human effort will triumph over cancer, or death itself in the end.

We are broken, this life, our lives, our bodies, our persons are not as they should be. And looking in the mirror each day, and watching yourself get older should confirm that for you. No amount of plastic surgery or botox will be enough in the end.

Everyone knows that there is a brokenness in this world, that this world is not as it should be, that is an uncontroversial statement. The controversy starts, when we look at what the options are, what will be a solution to the problems we all face.

The apostle Paul in the book of Romans, leaves us in no doubt at all, about these problems. The problems with creation, relationships, and even ourselves are only symptoms of the real problem, which is our relationship with God.
Rom1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

The weight of brokenness we experience in this life, is the real (but not yet eternal) judgement upon mankind for his rebellion. Mankind has consciously and purposefully rejected the truth about God as God, and because of his rebellion God justly judges him in this world, with the goal that mankind would come to their right mind and understand God as God, and man kind place before him as his creation. Mankind in their sinful idiocy, decide for a idols who will become a terrible masters, and so God gives them over to the desires of their own heart.

God created us, Mankind, to worship. To honour and serve God, and this truth is evident to all creation, all man kind knows the truth, that there is one God the creator, because God has left himself the testimony of the creation. The creation itself tells of God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature. But mankind rejected the truth, and in their sin, they set up idols and worship them instead of the living God.

Every single person in this world Paul tells us, has turned to God, and demanded that the keys to their life be taken from God and given to another who they feel will be a better master. Not one person is innocent in this regard.
Rom3:10 As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."

Deep down all humanity know that there is a brokenness with this world, deep down all humanity know, that they have not honoured God as God, truly, consistently and perfectly as he deserves. All humanity knows there is a problem with this life, we all feel the pains of alienation, a disconnection from reality and each other, and ultimately God, the question is, what is the solution to this problem?

Now just taking a step back for a moment, what we are talking about here, is the Christian doctrine of sin. In fact you may have heard the expression describing it as "total depravity". A description that is most normally associated with the theologian St Augustine in the fourth century, and then picked up an expanded and explained by John Calvin in the 16th century.

What the doctrine of the total depravity of mankind means, is that mankind is inclined away from God in all his thinking and actions because of sin. A sinful nature he inherits by birth from his father Adam. In fact you can read a little bit about that in chapter 5 in Romans from verse 12 on. What this doctrine means is that mankind is like a shopping trolley with broken wheels (an illustration I have used before). We know that God has made us, to go straight down the aisle and serve him, but we also know the inclinations of ourselves to skew to the side, to smash into the shelving, rather than striving to do what we know we ought, we know the inclinations of ourselves, and how easy it is to go with them.
And more than that, we even think to ourselves that smashing into the shelves might be a little bit of fun, and so we follow our desires, and reject the desires of our creator, for our lives.

We all consciously, purposely, and actively forego God and his purposes, we exchanged the truth for a lie, and in the process reject God as God, and set ourselves up under the Lordship of another.

The doctrine of total depravity, which is to say the Christian doctrine of sin, is that every single person rejects God and is deserving of his judgement. “No one is righteous not even one”. No one does the right thing all the time, and just one wrong thing, one time, is the conscious act to reject God as God. All humanity is silent before God, for all have sinned and fallen short of the standard and honour he deserves. No one has a claim upon God that God must be their God, that God must save them.

Now just so we are clear about this, the other side of this doctrine of the total depravity of man, that we need to hold together with it, is the truth that all mankind are made in God's image. While there is varying opinions as to what that means in detail, it is clear it means that mankind bears the stamp and likeness of their maker. Mankind was made in the image of God, but through sin that image has been marred, through sin the inclinations of mankind's heart are always and absolutely in rebellion against God. The image of God has been marred, it is broken, but it has not been obliterated.

What that means is, that while mankind is all ways depraved in his mind and hostile towards God. (In fact Romans chapter 5 tells us that we are God's enemy in our thinking and lives, and as a result God has become our enemy also!) We are depraved in our mind towards God, because the image of God in us is marred, yet we are not always in ourselves immoral.

Mankind can be profoundly hostile to God, and yet at the same time still moral in the normal sense of that word, to do good to their humankind. Fred hollows was an amazingly moral and good man, who did wonderful things for the people of Eritrea, but acknowledged himself that he'd given up on Christianity a long time ago, that the booze and the girls cut the Christianity out of him with the proficiency of the surgeon's scalpel.

God in his grace, has not totally removed his image from mankind, so Mankind, all mankind are capable of exhibiting some moral behaviour. But that same mankind is absolutely, and without question, proud and ultimately hostile towards God and his rule over their lives. They will not accept God as God, even though they know the good that has come from his hand.

“There is no one righteous not even one”.

The real problem, for mankind, is their relationship with God. But mankind in his stubborn and proud heart focuses upon trying to fix the symptoms, and in the process they actually increase their sin, and continue in, and even flourishing in, their desire to deny God as God.

The Bible tells is clearly what the problem is. Our problem is sin. Sin is what causes the alienation we experience in this world.
But unless you diagnose the problem properly, how will you ever find a solution? Everyone acknowledges there is a problem, everyone experiences in their own person and life, it is an uncontroversial thing to say.

So let me ask you, what do you think Mankind sees as the problem, and how do they approached the solution to this?

What do you reckon? (see mind map)

You see the reality is these things, are no solutions at all, because they don't recognize the real problem. They do not acknowledge the heart of the problem is mankind's relationship with their creator, the sustainer of all life, the living God. Mankind’s problem in this world is that they do not treat God, (they do not honour God, they do not serve God, they do not worship the true and living God) - as God, and instead exchange the truth of God with lie.

And God has given them over to the desires of their heart, the reality is that their proposed solutions are no solutions at all, and it is because God has designed them to fail. Their proposed solutions result in a shameful slavery to their desires, they end in disappointment. Our solutions ultimately fail to deliver, and we feel broken and trapped when true hardship comes.


The truth of reality, that is laid out for us in the Bible is, that Life without acknowledging God has no real and lasting meaning, it is a life of distraction, and instead of finding meaning it bears the full weight of its pride by experiencing hardship of life without Faith hope and love. The only real and truthful experience for the God denier, is to grieve under the uncertainty of life and it's fickle nature, but particularly to grieve under the spectre of death.

The God denying life, has its moments of pleasure, but is in fact a profound tragedy that cannot deal at any deep level, with the realities of life that creation is broken, that relationships are broken, and that we are broken. And worse than that, it has to acknowledge that any joy or any good thing we have will ultimately be taken away by death.


But even worse than that, (if you can believe it) the Bible says that in death, we will not just be separated from this world, but will in fact to stand face-to-face with our maker, the God we have tried to usurp, and we will bear in ourselves, in our persons, every last consequence of our sinful an obstinate life.

Rom 3:10As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."

The Chasm of Alienation - Introduction

The chasm of alienation

The title for this weekend, "the chasm of alienation" came to me as I was reading a book by the great Christian philosopher Francis Schaefer, who put forward the idea, shaped by his biblical thinking, that in this life Mankind experiences a profound alienation. Mankind experiences a profound alienation, a disconnection, from truth and reality because at the heart of the issue, they experience a profound alienation or disconnection from God.

Each one of mankind, each person, plays a role across the stage of life, all the while pretending that life is a comedy, a drama where the hero wins in the end, but the reality is in fact the very opposite, that life is in itself something of the tragedy. Within ourselves we experience this profound alienation from our world, from each other, and even from our true selves, and it is all because we do not honour the creator God as we should.

All of us know deep within ourselves, the experience of alienation. Whether it be a disconnection from a family member who we really know we should love, but truth be told just can't stand! Whether it is the experience of this disconnection in the world, when things don't work as they should, when the car that has just been rebuilt will not start. The alienation of finishing a university degree after years of hard work, to find an economy in recession which will employ no one new.

It is The alienation of living in a world, in which we're not sure we have a part to play. We don't know where we fit, we want to know that we have a purpose, that we have meaning, we want to know that it all isn't just slipping through our fingers, passing us by.

All of us experience this alienation, sometimes acutely, more often just chronically. But no one misses out, because life gets its hooks into everyone sooner or later, even if we don't want to face up to that reality.

Some of us may even experience the most profound alienation of the lot, the alienation from our very self. A disconnection between the person we have created ourselves to be, and the person God has made us to be. a disconnection that can leave us feeling guilty, and ashamed, anxious or depressed, even sick in our stomach, or untreated hardened and cold to life, each other, but especially God.

All of us know deep within ourselves, the experience of alienation. But the things that get our attention most, are only really symptoms of the biggest problem, which is Mankind's alienation from God himself.

Mankind tries to create for himself a reality with out God in it, and as a result we bear the consequences of these actions. As the apostle Paul himself said, “let God be true and all men are liars". Mankind’s problem is that he attempts to create his own reality, that deep down in its foundational nature and structure is out of step with reality.
In a very real way, mankind has lost his mind! Because mankind has lost touch with the foundation and cornerstone of reality, upon which all reality is structured, the true and living God.

Mankind’s problem, which is to say your big problem, and my big problem, is not global warming, it is not the world economic crisis, it is not even the diagnosis of cancer that will come to many of us who are in this room today. These things are just symptoms of alienation, symptoms of the real problem of being disconnected from the truth, disconnected from reality, which is to say to being disconnected from God, and from his son Jesus Christ.

In thinking about this theme of alienation, we cannot go past the biblical teaching of the apostle Paul in the book of Romans. Over the weekend, we again have a look at a couple of sections from Romans. A quite wonderful and yet at times bewildering book, that holds for us the keys of reality, truth, and the antidote for alienation.

Overview and introduction
In a moment we're going to have a look at the nature of mankind’s reality, and in particular, we are going to look at Paul's words from Romans chapter 3 V10, that “no one is righteous, not even one”. In this amazing passage of scripture, we see Paul clearly outline the darkness of the human heart, and the bleakness that results from his endeavours.

Once we have outlined this problem, the bulk of the weekend is going to be spent looking at the great shaft of light that Paul proposes is the solution to this alienation. the great theme of this weekend, is picking up on the great theme of the book of Romans, that the solution to this world’s alienation is to fix its problem with God.
The unsurprising part of this solution is that it is about Jesus Christ.
The surprising part of the solution is that it is about you as well!!

Paul outlines for the Christian believers in Rome, that the solution, the antidote for the world's problem of alienation from; God, their world, each other, even themselves; is the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel message of Jesus Christ who is Lord, who died for sin, and was raised from the dead, the Gospel message which brings about from Christian people, "the obedience of faith".

Christian people living Christian lives are an integral part of God's solution for his world. That is the surprising and challenging part of the Gospel message, which is to say the message of Romans. God's desire is to use you to bring about renewal and change in his world, in his creation. In and through you, Christ is bringing in his kingdom into his creation, to make a new creation.

The antidote for the world and its alienation, is the authentic Christian life brought about by the Gospel message of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. And as a result Paul compels from his hearers, truth, reality and goodness, he implores them, he exhorts them, he appeals to them, to live the authentic Christian lives, to live the life of worship, to be living sacrifices wholly devoted to God, he appeals to them to live the life that is called "the obedience of faith".

So in a moment we will have part one of our sessions, where we will look at mankind's problem. Following on from that in part two after morning tea, we will look at how the cross of Christ is the real and foundational, central truth of life, the universe, and everything!

And tomorrow morning we will in part three we will look at the “obedience of faith”, that the cross compels from us, the life of worship. The life of worship is the service and honour of the living God which will mean Christian people living against the world, for the world’s sake.

In addition we will be looking at Chapter 8 of Romans in study groups, and tonight we will have a chance for a group question time.
It is chock-a-block this weekend, so hold on to your hats.

Now to get us in the mood, to think about mankind's plight, I thought we could listen to some U2, almost by accident U2 have become something of a soundtrack to my life, a function of my age no doubt, but I think Bono hits the nail on the head, when he says there are only two types songs in this world, those running towards God, and those running away from God. I hope by the end of this weekend you leave resolved as to which type of song will be the soundtrack of your life.

A Baptism - Luke 18

Luke chapter 18 -- God gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud!

BI; God has atoned for sin in the death of his son on a cross, and he graciously gives that forgiveness and cleansing to all who will humbly acknowledge their sin and accept his gift of forgiveness. The humble will be exalted, but the proud will be brought low.

Introduction
Well today is a great day, where we are able to formally introduce Phoenix into the life of our congregation. It is a chance to celebrate the gift of life from God our creator, but it is also a chance to think about the meaning of life as well.

Because that is the big question isn't it, we all know that life is a good thing, a blessing from above, but I'm not so sure we are all that confident we know what it is for?
What is it, that is at the heart of meaning and purpose in this life?
Or more importantly, in our life?

And so now we have a moment, to stop and consider some words about life, from a man who is the most influential man who ever lived, so influential they named the dating system after him, so influential he even gets you three public holidays a year!

And in our Bible reading today we see Jesus address two groups of people, to the first group he told a parable (a story or riddle) about two men, and to the second group he made an illustration from the children that came to him. But more of that in a moment.

So it seems children are the theme today, and Tim and Karen, I have some bad news regarding children for you today, now I know this won't entirely be news to you, both from the experience of already having a child, and also your own experience of being a child tells you this to;
the news is kids do dumb things!

Little kids do astoundingly dumb things, often because they don't know better, but many times they do it, despite the fact they know better.
I have seen things on my daughter's hands, and in her mouth, that I wouldn't let touch the soul of my shoe!
And that is because Kids do dumb things.

And here's the really scary bit, I'm reliably told that teenagers do even dumber things!

But The interesting part in common here is that both little kids and teenagers seem to think they can get away with them though.

Now little kids in a first line of defence mechanism, usually employ the strategy of outright denial
-- "I didn't do it!".
And they will swear blind by this defence, even if they are in fact caught red-handed in the middle of the act.
Teenagers on the other hand, have generally grown out of this kind of futile exercise, and instead attempt, what is often an elaborate and more time-consuming, covert operation to cloak over the dumb things they have done!

Either way, the first response is to try to get away without having to take responsibility, for the dumb things they have done.

Adults it seems to me, have not evolved that much when it comes to dumb things. Everybody does dumb things, and as an adult the stakes are usually much higher. So we generally have given up on the denial approach, although at times of desperation, people will often give it a go, more commonly, however. If we are able, we give the sneaky approach of the teenager ago, in fact we usually become better at it than they are, because the stakes are higher.


But if neither of these approaches seems to be successful, as adults, we just give up trying to hide, and become brazen in our behaviour, we flaunt the dumb things we do, and in the name of relativism we challenge anyone to say that there is a wrong in the first place. "Who are you, to judge my life anyway?".

And that argument has some weight, when you are talking to another human being, because we all make mistakes, and we all have different paths to walk.
So this reasoning about living your own life your own way, holds some weight, that is until you try and use it with God.

God gives life, all life, and he knows what it is for. He sees all the things about your life, both the good things, and the dumb things. So what approach will you use when it comes to explaining to your creator what you have done with your life, When it comes to explaining the dumb things you have done?
Will you try to deny it?
Or Will you try and hide from it? (That's what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden)
Or Will you just live brazenly in it, thumbing your nose at your creator challenging his right to demand anything of you anyway?

At the heart of life, is the challenge of the end of life. If you don't understand how this life ends, how will you live a life of meaning and purpose?
Today we reflect on the beginning of life, and so at the same time we need to reflect on the end of life, when we will meet God our creator face-to-face and have to give an account of the life we have lived.

We all do dumb things in life, dumb things against each other, dumb things against ourselves, but especially dumb things against God. And the Bible calls these dumb things, Sin.
What will you do with yours, when you meet with your God?
This is the heart of what Jesus is talking about today in his stories, because this is at the heart of all meaning and purpose in life, because it is at the heart of our relationship with God our creator. And our relationship with God our creator, is the thing, in fact in the end it is the only thing, that gives our life meaning and purpose!

You can try and deny it, you can try and hide it, you can try and argue with the Almighty that you really know what's going on, and he who made you has no clue!
You can go down that path until the cows come home, until eternity the Bible says, but you won't be doing it in the place where God is! so it seems to me we need a better option don't we, we need something to be done about this problem. And that is what we will learn about today, that our God, the creator God, the sovereign and holy God, is a gracious God, whose hearts desire is to offer forgiveness, to help the hurting, to care for the broken, and to restore the humble.

The message today in a nutshell is this;
God gives Grace to the humble, but God opposes the proud.

And this is what we see in our passage today in the two stories that Jesus tells.

1. The proud Pharisee versus the humble tax collector

18:9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness
and looked down on everybody else,
Jesus told this parable:
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray,
one a Pharisee
and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood up
and prayed
about[a] himself:
'God,
I thank you
that I am not like other men—
robbers,
evildoers,
adulterers—
or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week
and give a tenth of all I get.'
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look up to heaven,
but beat his breast and said,
'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

It seems that the relativism that runs rampant in our secular Western culture today, is not new. Who would have thought it? It seems Jesus himself around 2000 years ago, knew this kind of people. In fact that is why Jesus tells both these stories, but particularly this first parable of the Pharisee versus the tax collector.

In this scene, Jesus is talking to people, who are confident in their own righteousness (confident of their standing before God), & they are confident because they look down on everyone else. I'm sure you know this kind of people too, in fact you may be one of these people (I suspect all of us when no one else is looking). The kind person who says, well I might not be a saint, but I am not Adolf Hitler, I'm not Ivan Milat, I'm not even Shane Warne, or an NRL footballer for that matter, so things must be pretty sweet for me with God, well at least compared to them!


Relativism is a great idea to try and make yourself feel good about who you are, because you are not as bad as some. The problem with relativism is, that people don't understand how it works, the Bible tells us we are not compared relative to the worst person, we are in fact compared relative to the best person, and it changes everything. God holds all humanity up to comparison with perfect humanity, his son Jesus Christ. We aren't compared to the worst of humanity like Adolf Hitler, we are compared to the best of humanity, the perfectly obedient son of God, Jesus Christ.
It changes everything doesn't it?
I mean who likes to be on the losing side of comparison?
And just because someone loses worse than you, is no real consolation at all is it.

You don't have to be Einstein to work out, that when we are compared with Jesus, we all have a problem don't we?
The self-righteous, compare themselves to the weakest, and that is what the Pharisee does in this story.
A Pharisee, is the pinnacle of the religious man of his day. He is like a cardinal in the Pope's Court, dressed in his fine robes, entering into the Vatican in the sight of all the people to pray, on some important ceremonial religious occasion. He is a zealously religious man, all the people know it, he makes sure they know it! The problem for him is, that God does not judge by external appearances, but knows the hearts of men.

The funny thing about people is, sooner or later, whatever we try and cover over and hide on the inside, bursts out through the external facade sooner or later and people see us for who we are. And that is what happens to the Pharisee when he prays.

This Pharisee stands in front of the people, in plain sight, and prays one of those terrible horizontal prayers (you know the ones, where people pray to the other people listening, rather than praying like they should, a vertical prayer, one addressed to their heavenly father, God their creator).

And his prayer, even when he gives thanks, he doesn't thank God for the things he has received from God's hand, but instead thanks himself in God's sight, that he is better than the weakest and the worst. He praises himself for his acts of external religiosity, of praying in the temple, of observing the sabbath day, and of carving off his required amounts of money to the temple.

His relativism, made him feel good about himself, because he compares himself to the weak, and the least of all. True relativism compares itself to the perfect, what the Pharisee was called to do.

The Bible is very clear that the righteous must do two things;
- Firstly, love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength.
- Secondly, love your neighbour as yourself.

Nobody should stand proudly before God, trying to remind God of what a great bloke they are, if they remember the standard they are actually called to, not just the standard that everyone else seems to live by.

[light] Have you ever hired a car, from a hire place, like Avis or budget or the like?
Not only is it generally quite painful experience, discovering the fine print is not what they said, that the $45 a day car, actually cost $90 a day if you don't Wanna have an insurance excess of $10,000!
Not to mention they are going charge you $1.50 per kilometre that you drive.
On top of that, you always have to do that inspection before and after the car is being taken by don't you?
You know where you walk around the sheet of paper, and Mark: all the dings and scrapes and scratches and the rest of the damage on the car.

Before you take the car, you are the most vigilant person ever, with the guys notetaking of the damage already on the car.
But After you return the car, you could not be more lackadaisical with the guys notetaking if you tried.
It seems there is a little bit of teenager left in all of us, we would just like to cover things over if we could.

Like a mate of mine, when he was on his ‘p’ plates, he got to borrow his dad's White LTD, and he drove us to a party. As we got to the party he tried to drive down the driveway between the brick pillars of the fence. Now an LTD is a big car.
And it didn't quite fit between the brick pillars. So my mate managed to pinstripe a grey metallic stripe along one side of his dad's car.

Now it seems to me you’ve got a few options at this point. And my mate decided for one that hadn't occurred to me, and I still think it is stupid.
Do know what he did?
He drove the car back to another mates house, and got the liquid paper out and proceeded to paint over the new paint pinstripe. After all he was still a teenager. Did he honestly think his dad was not going to notice?

That is what we try to do with our relationship with God. We try to paint over the damage, and then profess that least it isn't as bad as the other peoples.

Do you honestly think God is not going to notice what you have done with your life? That is what the self-confident people are placing their bets on. That God will be so busy with the other people's problems, he couldn't possibly notice mine! Like an overworked Avis guy at the airport lounge, too busy to care.

Well here is one side of the moral from the story of Jesus tells, God does notice, he notices everyone, and he will oppose the proud, & he will oppose the self-confident.
And here is the second half of the moral of the story. In contrast the humble, compare themselves to perfection, they compare themselves to God himself, God the son, Jesus Christ. Every one who compares themselves to Jesus, realises that they fall short of Gods standard.

Humble people, realise that they do not compare, they do not match up, humble people acknowledge there is a problem.

Humble people are like the tax collector in Jesus story, they know that they have done wrong, they admit that they have done wrong, and they turn to God knowing that only from his hand can come the mercy that they need.
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance.
He would not even look up to heaven,
but beat his breast and said,
'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'



The tax collector, collected tax for the Roman Empire, the occupying force of the day. It is the equivalent today of a Palestinian who decided to collect tax on behalf of the occupying Israeli forces from his own people the Palestinians. A tax collector is a traitor of his own people. He is worse than Rolf in the Sound of music.

And this traitor, did not stand in the sight of all men to pray, but he did pray to the true and living God in his temple. He beat his breast, he was so ashamed of his own sinfulness, so ashamed of the stupid things he had done, and so earnestly desiring for the damage they had caused to his relationship with God to be fixed.

He literally says to God, "not just have mercy on me a sinner", but "atone for me a sinner!". Rather than congratulating himself and trying to pretend that everything is okay, this man humbled himself before the living God, acknowledged his own sinfulness, and called on this God to be God.
To be the gracious God who desires to save the lost, to fix the broken and to heal the sick.

And here is the sting in the tail, as Jesus tells us the results of this story.
14 "I tell you that this man,
rather than the other,
went home justified before God.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

The self-righteous are brought low by God, he owes them nothing. But the humble are justified (made righteous) by God and his grace towards them.

God opposes the proud, (the person who is the selective relativist), but gives his grace to the humble.

And this story is reinforced in the second scene where Jesus interacts with his disciples, which we are going to look at quickly.

2. The proud disciples versus the humble children

18:15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus
to have him touch them.
When the disciples saw this,
they rebuked them.
16 But Jesus called the children to him
and said,
"Let the little children come to me,
and do not hinder them,
for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
17 I tell you the truth,
anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child
will never enter it."

You see it's not just the religious elite, who suffer from a warped sense of reality, through a cheap relativism, but even Jesus very own disciples suffer from it as well.

The disciples, who until recent times, were fishermen and tax collectors and the like themselves, now feel that they are something special because they know Jesus. They feel like they are deserving to be in his company, but in contrast, Little babies or infants are not.

Somehow they feel, these little ones are beneath Jesus. But Jesus rebukes his disciples in no uncertain terms, these little ones able to come to him just like anyone else. In fact they are a better example of how to come to Jesus than anyone else.

New babies can't do anything for themselves, for most of the time they don't even know what they need, much less have the capacity to provide it. They mostly know that they need someone else to provide for them, which is why they cry out for help.

These children that have come to Jesus, are the great example for us as to how you receive the kingdom of God. They know that they are helpless, they cry out, they are brought to Jesus, and they receive the gift they need.

Jesus is calling us to come to him, to cry out to him, so that we may receive grace from God, to fix the problems that we couldn't fix, to fix our relationships with each other, to fix the things we've broken about ourselves, but most importantly to fix our relationship with God.

Jesus said he came ‘to seek and to save the lost’, and he did it by dying on a cross to pay the debt of our sin that we owed to God. And for all who would turn to him and cry out, he offers a costly forgiveness. And God himself has confirmed that this is good and acceptable in his sight, by raising Jesus from the dead, as we have just celebrated at Easter.

God opposes the proud, the self-confident, the religious, the relativist who says, ‘at least I'm not like them". But God gives grace to the humble, the one who realises that they have done wrong, (that they have done dumb things), they have sinned against God, and that they don't want paint over it with liquid paper anymore!

This is the heart of life, that gives life meaning and purpose. As we consider the beginning of life with a baptism, we need to consider also the end of life, in order that we would understand what the meaning and purpose of life is.

You See here Jesus is leaving you with a question:
which of the two things does your life stand on before God,
- self-confidence or
- Humility

You see there are only two paths you can go down, when it comes to the dumb things you have done in your life before God;
some form of self-confidence -- be it denying the problem, trying to cover over the problem, or even thumbing your nose at God altogether -- you can go down that path of self confidence. And if you do,Jesus says to you today, that God opposes the proud and they will be brought low.

Or you can choose the path of humility. Like a little child.
You can acknowledge that there is a problem, and you did it, and you don't want to cover over it anymore. Like the tax collector, you can cry out to God in prayer, asking him to have mercy on you and the wrong you have done. Asking him to atone for your sin, to let Jesus death on the cross be your death on the cross, and to forgive you for Jesus sake.

That is what Tim and Karen have asked God to do for Phoenix today. That Jesus death would be his death, so he can be forgiven, and be in right relationship with God.

Phoenix might not have done too much wrong yet, but given he is not the immaculate conception, we all know his day is coming! just like yours did, just like mine did. A day where we made some decisions and make a hash of it. This morning we have prayed that God would be merciful upon Phoenix because of Christ in that day. And that is the heart, of meaning and purpose in life.
The question is, is it the heart and meaning and purpose in your life?

There are only two options in this life;
Self-confidence, or humble dependence upon Christ.
What are you trusting upon?
And how will you stand when you meet your creator face-to-face?